Stowaway (A Pirate Novel) (Completed)

Ch. 50 Chit Chat

As soon as Zed pronounced her capable Elle through herself in to her work. She even set traps in the hold for rodents. Determined to excape her emotions she worked till dead on her feet so her body had no choice but to sleep. She ate when needed. Cook, Jr, Harv, and Zed made sure of it at every meal. Even James seemed to watch her. But the weight she had lost on the trip to India refused to return.

Talbot growled at Elle. "If you don't want to be spending the next several months peeling potatoes and counting barrels of rum then you will not work your self to death on my ship." He glared at her then looked down at the papers on the desk. "If you're anger at me - fine. But your not punishing me by working yourself into the ground. It ends now. You do your shifts only, no more unless cleared by me or Harv."

Elle's mouth snapped closed. She had no desire to be banished to the galley or her cabin again. She had kept all of her rebellions private as she had agreed, not that there had been many in the last week at sea. She had been obedient to a fault in front of the other crew.

"Do I make myself clear?" He asked. Each of his hands planted on his desk as he leaned towards her.

"As rain." She mumbled.

"Good." He grinned triumphantly. He leaned back and nodded. "You'll get just as much work as the others. We're working with eight less men then we need so I can't afford for anything to happen to any of you. We may pick up a few crew members in Sri Lanka." He told her. "At least I hope." He picked up a pen and nodded to the papers.

She nodded but he was no longer looking at her. She didn't know why but everything about him irritated her at the moment.

She waited. He dipped the pen in ink and wrote on the page.

She turned. After two steps she froze.

"You can read." He said from the desk behind her. She turned to face him. She waited. That hadn't sounded like a question. "Well, can you?" He demanded looking up from the desk.

"Yes."

"Hmm." He said thoughtfully drumming the fingers of his left hand on the cover of a book. Ink splotched the tip of his third finger. The book was half buried under papers, not that he noticed. "You can write?"

She nodded. "Yes." She confirmed verbally because he wasn't looking at her. She wanted to throw something at his head and see if he looked at her then. He moved papers around on the desk.

"Okay." He looked up at her. He smiled but Elle knew it was forced. "I guess you'll have a bit more work then the others after all." He said watching her reaction.

Her muscles tensed. Her eyes narrowed. "Meaning?"

"I want the crew listed in a ledger. Name, place of residence, date of hire, next of kin, position on the crew. Any information that can help me manage the crew better." He put the pen in an empty jar.

Her brows furrowed together. "I can do that. Where's the original list?"

"I don't have one, exactly." He admitted, almost sheepishly. "You can ask the crew."

"All of them?" Elle demanded in irritation .

"The ones that I don't have down now, yes." His displeasure clearly intoned in his voice.

"How many do you have?" She asked warily. She hoped that it was mostly completed but expected it to be zero to none.

"Ten." He told her. He seemed harried. A small space in her mind noted it but her main focus was on the dreaded list.

"That still leaves over fifty." She gritted her teeth as he nodded. Writing was not one of her favorite pastimes. It was messy. She glanced at the spot on his third finger. It was time consuming. "When do you want me to start?" She asked resigned.